Police top list of highest-paid Worcester employees

Monday

Mar 17, 2014 at 6:50 PMMar 19, 2014 at 7:49 AM

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Two regular police officers jumped into the ranks of the city's top 10 highest-paid employees last year, joining police commanders and top leaders at City Hall and Worcester public schools, according to payroll records.

Police Chief Gary J. Gemme and Deputy Chief Mark S. Roche remained the first and second highest-paid city employees, earning $199,430 and $195,246, respectively, in 2013. Deputy Chief Roche was bumped into the second spot in part by $35,967 in extra pay from detail assignments.

In 2012, no rank-and-file police officers made the top 10, but last year Officers Thomas A. Feraco and Michael P. Higgins broke into the upper echelons of city wage earners.

Officer Feraco's $189,446 in total pay, including $58,746 in detail pay and $44,638 in overtime, landed him in the seventh slot. Officer Higgins ranked tenth with $182,361 in total pay including $76,839 in detail pay — by far the highest amount of any officer in the city.

Former city manager Michael V. O'Brien was third on the list with $192,320 in total pay.

Although her pay increased slightly to $190,200, Superintendent of Schools Melinda J. Boone fell from third to sixth on the list. Ms. Boone is the only woman among the top 40 wage earners.

Police Officer Hazel D. Berry was the second highest-paid female employee with $156,439 in total pay. Assistant City Manager Kathleen G. Johnson ranked 54th with $151,317 in pay last year.

The former commissioner of the Department of Public Works and Parks, Robert L. Moylan Jr., jumped from 17th to fifth among the city's top earners. Mr. Moylan made $191,006 last year, up from $168,344 the previous year. A city spokeswoman said Mr. Moylan's increase was not related to him cashing out unused leave time when he retired. Those payments were not made until January and thus aren't counted in the 2013 payroll figures.

Overall, the top 250 city wage earners list continued to be dominated last year by police officers and commanders with school employees following at a distant second.

Police officers and commanders with access to paid details and opportunities to earn overtime pay accounted for 178 positions on the top 250 list. Of the $34.4 million paid to the top 250 earners last year, $25 million, or 73 percent of the total, went to police officers and commanders.

Thirty police officers earned more than $50,000 in detail pay last year.

"Anytime you can add police officers in the community, the public benefits," Chief Gemme said in an emailed statement. "Detail officers have been credited with performing public safety duties including assisting citizens, saving lives and making arrests. The visible presence of police officers at intersections, business establishments, athletic events and other public gatherings is reassuring to the community."

Officer Higgins was the highest detail-pay earner followed by Officer William Auger Jr., who made $69,928 in detail pay and $7,302 in overtime to push his pay to $160,486.

School Department administrators and technical employees occupied 53 spots of the top 250 list for a total of $6.8 million in pay, or 20 percent of the total. No teachers made the top 250.

Ten City Hall employees and nine Fire Department commanders rounded out the top 250 list.

In terms of overtime pay, Chief Gemme's brother, Officer Alan W. Gemme, remains the highest overtime pay earner in the city as has been the case for several years. He made $65,406 in overtime last year, boosting his overall pay to $137,914.

Officer Gemme has worked as a mechanic at the Police Department garage in addition to his regular work as an officer in recent years.

Including Officer Gemme, 31 police officers made more than $25,000 in overtime in 2013, according to the city figures, which were obtained by the Telegram & Gazette through a public records request.

Last year, a school employee and a firefighter managed to break into the ranks of top overtime earners in the city, who otherwise were all police officers or commanders.

Worcester public school systems and database analyst Mohammed Siddiqui earned $39,941 in overtime, boosting his pay to $117,060. Fire Lt. Mark J. Cady made $28,714 in overtime as part of his gross pay for the year of $122,055, according to the figures.

Led by Mr. Siddiqui as the primary software developer, the Worcester public school system has been developing an internal information system to track student enrollment, testing and other school and faculty data, said Chief Financial and Operations Officer Brian E. Allen.

The system also includes a portal that allows parents to view attendance, pay for lunches online, and view grades and schedules.

"Final implementation occurred in the summer of 2013, so overtime costs increased significantly to meet deadlines and to insure the user experience was acceptable," said Mr. Allen, who estimated the in-house system would save the district $75,000 a year.

Lt. Cady's overtime pay was related to his work as a communications expert with the Central Region Homeland Security Advisory Council and was paid by outside agencies, not the Fire Department, said Deputy Fire Chief Geoffrey Gardell.